An Excellent Flight in US Airways Envoy Class

In some ways, I am happy my United Airlines oversell fiasco did not work out at LAX earlier this week because it gave me a chance to fly US Airways transatlantic Envoy (business) class for the first time. The experience was a good one–in fact, it was great.

A full trip report will follow with many photos, but for now let me give you the highlights:

A spectacular new horizontal lie-flat seat – very comfortable in all positions and great for sleeping.

Great food – a steak cooked medium, nice appetizers and dessert, and a hot breakfast prior to landing. Even United three-cabin “Global” first class does not offer hot breakfasts anymore on East Coast to Europe flights.

Good service – the service was so very American–casual and not overly-polished. The crew member serving me was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with no tie. Yet, I found the crew to be friendly and engaging–they went out of their way to make me comfortable and I appreciated that. They cared and it showed.

Great IFE – similar to Swiss Air’s new Panasonic IFE system, there was a wide selection of movies that would have kept me occupied for hours. I just watched Iron Lady during my meal then fell asleep. The only minus is that the IFE system is not turned on until the aircraft reaches cruising altitude and it is turned off when the aircraft begins its descent (unlike United, where IFE is available gate to gate).

Clean and sleek cabin – I loved the wood-grain accents and the cabin was immaculately clean.

A wonderful flight that has me looking forward to the return flight to Philadelphia in August!

4 Comments

Just had the pleasure of flying US Air in Domestic First CLT-DEN. Friendly service from check-in, agent at the lounge, to the gate agent (thanked me by name as I boarded). Flight crew was super great and the agent in first was always checking on us to make sure our glasses were full – she never once sat down to read a book. Tasty meal service too. As a GS on UA, I was really impressed with US Air!

Matthew, thanks for the post and good to hear. I had never considered flying in int’l premium class on USAir, but will have to re-think that now. When you said even United GF doesn’t offer hot meal, did you mean hot meal for breakfast? They do offer hot meals for dinner even on East Coast to EU flights, right? Did you use miles for this or revenue ticket?

I’ve heard nothing but good, and this sort of product gives me some hope if a UA/AA merger happens, since US is finally investing in their hard product. I’ve had some decent, and some bad experiences on US, but improvement like this gives me hope of having 3 strong options for US carriers (I seriously think AA and US will merge at some point, the question will be the party driving).